Adobe teams up with Google to integrate its Flash Player with Google's Chrome Web browser, while Mozilla joins the pair on development of an interoperability API.
Adobe has teamed up with Google to integrate its Flash Player with Google's
Chrome browser.
On March 30 the two companies announced that Google had released an initial
integration of the Flash Player with Chrome to its developer channel. The first
release consists of an integrated Adobe Flash Player plug-in and a basic
plug-in manager.
In a blog post about the new integration,
Ben Galbraith,
co-founder of Ajaxian, said:
"While this doesn't change the
game for developers-it won't materially impact Flash market share-it certainly
provides a much more pleasant integration for users who will no longer need to
think about updating Flash as a separate process [from] updating their
browsers. (And since Chrome auto-updates, it's blissful upgrading
indeed.)"
In addition to Flash integration for Chrome, Google has teamed up with Adobe
and Mozilla to deliver an API "that can
provide a better way for all Web browsers and plug-ins to interact with each
other,"
Paul
Betlem, Adobe senior director of Flash Player engineering, said in a blog
post. "While the current NPAPI [Netscape Plugin Application Programming
Interface] has served the industry well, it lacks the flexibility and power to
support the pace of innovation we see ahead," he said.
According to Betlem, the new API,
code-named Pepper,
will provide additional support, including:
- The API will be operating system- and
browser-neutral, minimizing the chance of inconsistent behavior across
platforms.
- The new API is being designed with the flexibility
to allow plug-ins to more tightly integrate with host browsers.
- The new plug-in API will provide performance benefits since the host browser will be able to
directly share more information about its current state.
- The tighter integration provided by the API can allow for a more secure browsing
experience as it will be easier to unify security models and collaborate
on security techniques, such as sandboxing.
In a separate post,
Linus
Upson, vice president of engineering at Google, said:
"Improving the traditional
browser plug-in model will make it possible for plug-ins to be just as fast,
stable, and secure as the browser's HTML and JavaScript engines. Over time this
will enable HTML, Flash, and other plug-ins to be used together more seamlessly
in rendering and scripting.
These improvements will encourage
innovation in both the HTML and plug-in landscapes, improving the web
experience for users and developers alike."
Of the Pepper platform, Galbraith said, "At first glance it seems to
embrace about the right set of trade-offs."
Though the three companies are currently working on Pepper, they gave no
timeline for delivery. The project is listed as "under consideration"
on Mozilla wiki page.
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